Will to Survive (17 page)

Also, we were bringing back other things from the farm, including more seed, fruit preserves, tools, and additional farm equipment that had been stored in the root cellar. And, of course, there was one more “prize”: Mr. McCurdy and his group had agreed to accept our invitation. They were going to take today and tomorrow to get themselves ready to leave their shack. Howie would come back with an away team and vehicles to transport them and all of their possessions and anything else that could be of value. We had to come back anyway to finish harvesting the rest of the potatoes. Herb was right—this had been the best day. Not just because of what we already had, but what was still to come.

Mr. McCurdy had told Herb that he knew of some other farm fields where there were carrots still in the ground, and he'd scouted out a deserted orchard that was heavy with apples. As produce that would last through the winter if stored properly, potatoes, carrots, and apples were hard to beat.

In preparation for the winter, root cellars had been dug under some of the houses to store food. There was already talk that with the potato harvest these would have to be expanded by a factor of two.

There were teams as well that were being created to can food in order to preserve it for the coming months. Not quite the same as being part of an away team, but just as important for our long-term survival. Sometimes the best tool or weapon wasn't a shovel or a gun, but a can or a bottle and knowing how to store food.

Lori climbed in and the car's springs groaned loudly.

“It might be time for me to go on a diet,” she said.

“If it's a potato diet, you're all set.”

She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Has anybody told you lately that you're cute?”

“Cute makes me sound like a stuffed animal.”

“Keep in mind that I
sleep
with my stuffed animals.”

“Okay, cute it is, that's definitely me, cute as a button.”

She gave me another kiss as the vehicle in front of me started moving. Regretfully, I turned back to the wheel and put the car in gear. We inched up the lane, and I tried to steer around all the potholes to avoid bottoming out. We got to the road with just a few scrapes.

As we rumbled over the highway and left the country behind, I felt my anxiety level rise. It was late in the day, so more people would be out and about. And since we'd already passed this way our return wouldn't be unexpected, and we were now carrying a fortune in food. We had to hope that the size of our caravan made it unwise for anybody to risk attacking us. Desperation can overpower wisdom, unfortunately, and times were becoming more desperate.

Just as that thought occurred to me, the vehicle in front came to a stop. I coasted right up to its bumper and halted as well.

“What do you think is happening?” Lori asked.

“I don't know. Probably nothing. We might just be tightening up the convoy.”

Herb got out of the lead vehicle and started to walk down the line. Whatever it was, we were going to find out soon. He stopped at the window of the first vehicle and spoke to the driver, then proceeded to the second and third. His pace was deliberate, unhurried, his expression, as always, neutral. That didn't mean it wasn't something serious.

He came up to my open window. “Your family is safe,” he said to me.

A chill went up my spine.

“There was an attack on the neighborhood.”

“
Was?
Is it over?” Lori questioned.

“It appears to be.”

“What happened?”

“Initial reports are that three RPGs were launched. One took out part of the northeast wall and guard tower.”

“Was anybody hurt?” Lori asked.

“Four wounded … I don't know how seriously.”

And then I remembered that my best friend was stationed at one of the towers today. “Was Todd one of the wounded?”

“I don't know who was wounded, but if Todd was one of them I think your mother would have relayed that info.”

“Are you sending back some of our guards to man the walls?” I asked.

“Negative. They're needed here more than there. It was an isolated attack, but that doesn't mean that we won't be targeted next,” Herb said.

I knew what he meant. We were exposed out here. “That's smart. Somebody could think that by attacking the walls they would force us to send some of our guards back to the neighborhood from our convoy and make ourselves even more vulnerable,” I said.

Herb nodded and I glanced over at Lori. She looked as scared as I felt.

“Listen, we don't know anything for certain,” Herb said, “except that it wasn't an attempt to invade the neighborhood. Somebody just fired grenades at us. If it wasn't a diversion, it was just about causing havoc without any hope of gain.”

It could only be one person.

“I understand. I'll stay tight to the vehicle in front of me,” I said.

“I want you to do the
opposite
,” Herb said. “I need at least fifty feet of clearance between each vehicle. I don't want one RPG to take out two vehicles.”

Herb reached in and placed a hand on my shoulder. “It's going to be fine, you two.” He went to talk to the next vehicle in line.

“Do you think it was Brett?” Lori asked.

“It could have been anybody.”

“Do you really think that?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. It only makes sense that it's Brett.”

“Why doesn't he just leave us alone?” she demanded.

Rage rose up inside me. “If I'd known what would happen, I would have killed him myself.”

“Really?”

“I should have just shot him in the head when I had the chance.”

“I don't think you could shoot someone like that,” she said.

I laughed bitterly. “I already did, remember?”

Lori looked stricken and I felt awful. Me killing those two men was one of the things we never talked about.

“I'm sorry … I didn't mean to upset you.” I reached over, but she pulled away to face out the window.

I didn't know what else to say. Before words came, the vehicle in front of us started moving. I gave it a few seconds to get some distance; then I put the Omega into gear and we were off again.

*   *   *

The sun was just setting when we entered through the western gate. It felt good to be on the right side of the walls. Not that the walls were any protection if somebody lobbed another missile at us. I knew the power and the range of a rocket-propelled grenade. There were only a few places in the whole neighborhood that would have been completely safe, and we weren't in one of them this close to the perimeter.

Still, it was better to be inside than outside. We'd encountered no problems, but that didn't mean the remaining ride hadn't been tense. Lori hadn't said more than a few words to me, and the times I'd tried to initiate a conversation were met with little more than a word or two.

Once we were inside the walls, the guards on go-carts and motocross bikes raced off, along with Herb and Howie, heading to the northeast gate. The trucks and cars turned into the shopping mall parking lot, where they were going to be unloaded. As they turned I kept going straight.

“What are you doing?” Lori asked.

“I'm going to park in your driveway so you can unload your family's things. Can you then take my car back up to the mall so the folks up there can unload the potatoes, please?”

“And what are you going to do?” she asked.

“I need to know what's happening, what's going to happen. I need to talk to my mother and father and be there when the committee meets.” I knew the committee would gather automatically this evening, because of the emergency. We turned onto Lori's street, and I pulled to a stop. “It's probably best that you leave the car running while you unload. You know it can be hard to start sometimes.”

I went to get out and she grabbed my arm. “I'm sorry for being, you know, not very talkative. I was just scared,” she said.

“Of Brett?”

“Of you.”

I leaned back on the headrest and she put her head on my shoulder. We both stared out the windshield. We sat like that for a little while, not saying a word.

“All right, get out of here,” she said at last.

We kissed, and then I climbed out of the car and she slid into the driver's seat.

*   *   *

As I approached the site of the attack, the sun was below the horizon and daylight was fading fast. At the breach in the wall there was a hive of activity. I recognized many people but didn't see my mother or father, or Herb or Howie.

Then I spotted Todd. He was standing by a section of the wooden wall that was reduced to a pile of toothpicks.

One of the guard towers had collapsed, and I could see a scorch mark where an explosion had taken place. There was a crater inside the wall that marked the impact of another explosion. If nobody was killed, it wasn't due to lack of effort by the shooter.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I came up to Todd's side.

“Twenty-five minutes later and I would have been in that guard tower,” he said. “I guess it was lucky we altered the schedule on the shift change.”

“I'm just glad you're okay.”

“Okay, but a little annoyed. You know I practically built that guard tower, and now it's gone. You remember how angry I used to get when somebody would destroy something I was building with Legos?”

“I remember. I think I did that to you once in kindergarten.”

“Well, think of this as a really, really big Lego tower. I guess I better get to work. Talk to you later.”

A construction team was already putting together a temporary wall, more a pile of debris than anything fancy, and Todd walked over to join them. Todd's father was leading the repair crew, but he was too far away for me to talk to him.

“Does anybody know where my mom or dad is?” I called out.

One construction person stopped working and turned. “I haven't seen your father, but I think your mother's out there,” she said, gesturing beyond the wall. “We sent two teams out.”

That wasn't the reassuring message I was hoping for. “And Herb?”

“What do you think? He and your mom are leading one team; Howie is leading the other.”

I thanked her for the info and hustled right over to the gate—or what was left of the gate—and slipped through.

I zipped up the vest of body armor that I'd been wearing most of the day. That made me feel a little more secure, although I knew that it couldn't stop anything of too heavy a caliber and it didn't protect my head at all. I might as well have been completely naked if a sniper had me in his scope. Actually, that's how I thought of myself—completely exposed, completely naked.

Then I thought of something else that made me even more upset. My mother was out here, too. What better way to hurt me than to hurt her?

As I got closer to the woods beyond the wall, I could see movement among the trees and recognized a dozen or more of our people, my mother and Herb in the lead.

I scrambled down the slope, sending rocks ahead of me. It wasn't a quiet or graceful slide, but noisy was better, anyway. You didn't want to sneak up on a bunch of people with weapons, especially when they were probably more than a little edgy.

They all turned at the sound of my advance, and my mother waved.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked.

“Looking for you. What are you doing out here?”

She seemed taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“You shouldn't be out here with Herb and Howie. Don't you understand how vulnerable—”

Herb raised a hand to silence me, and I stopped. He turned to the dozen guards with him. “Can you please fan out and give us a perimeter of thirty yards, no more than fifteen yards apart, behind protective cover. Go.”

They set off. Herb turned back to me with a stern look, but before he could say anything my mother jumped in.

“Adam, I might be your mother, but I'm also a leader of this neighborhood, and you should never,
ever
question my judgment in front of the people I'm commanding. It completely undermines my authority.”

I felt like I was six years old. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

A transmission came over her walkie-talkie, and while she dealt with that I took a few deep breaths and settled myself. When she finished, she turned back to me and gave me a deep look.

“Apology accepted. And please accept mine.”

“For what?” I asked.

“You're right. I shouldn't be in the open with Herb and Howie. I could have stayed within the walls to help if there was another attack. But I couldn't send people out if I wasn't willing to go out myself,” she said.

“Everybody knows you're willing and able. It's just that you're too valuable to risk,” I said.

“I don't think any of us should be out here,” Herb said. “If this was Brett's doing, the three people he wants to kill the most are all standing in one place: right here.” He pointed to the ground.

“Of course he doesn't even know you're alive,” I said to Herb. “And it's probably better that it stays that way.”

“Point made and taken,” Herb said. “How about you two head right in with all the scouts? I'll be in shortly.”

“Why not right away?” I asked.

“I have a couple of things to do before the committee meeting,” he replied. “Can we convene at seven? I should at least have some interesting questions to put forward then—if I haven't come up with the answers yet.”

 

17

“Sorry I'm late,” Herb said as he entered our crowded living room and settled into a seat at the corner of the table, next to Howie and my mother. Everyone else on the committee had arrived. I was sitting on the couch with my dad, talking about a minor mechanical issue on the Cessna we both had noticed.